Venus versus Virus
by Moka-girl
Summary: Suguri is a Mew. Nobody can find a plausible explanation as to WHY. They only seem to care about the planet's fate, forgetting to worry about its saviours.


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**This story, due to my changing style, will no longer be updated. I'll re-write a better version on top of it when I have the time, but for now, I'm leaving the first chapter.**

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_**Disclaimer:**__ Nothing is mine._

_**By:**__ Moka-girl_

_**Word count: **__ 2 ' 4 7 7_

_**Date:**__ 23 December 2010, 09h56_

_**A/N:**__ This chapter is really short because I am leaving in less than two hours and I have to prepare myself. I'm going skiing in 'Les Gets', in France. There are nearly no stories about Tokyo Mew Mew, so I'm contributing. Here's hoping you'll take enough of an interest to read it whole._

_Give me five reviews and you'll have a second chapter this long. Give me ten reviews and it'll be much longer._

_**R & R**_

Tokyo μ μ !

THE FOREST

The trails of newly-shed blood could not be missed. Every two or three steps appeared bright red smudges. Prints left by the paws of the animal were also distinguished clearly. In the summer it would have been more difficult to spot them but in this beginning of spring, grass and fern were scarce and the ground, quite spongy, kept the marks clear and visible for her to see.

Even a simple greedy poacher could have been capable of tracking the blood smears' owner; Suguri, herself, had the impression of following a clear, marked-out path in the middle of the fern shoots and the layer of humus. At the bend of the granite rocks and naked bushes, she discovered crimson droplets so fresh she could perceive their salty smell. The markings to the right being less pronounced, she managed to deduct an approximation of the wounded area.

Running after a wolf with, as only weapon, a knife sheathed to her thigh was a bit stupid, unlike her even. She would be lucky to get back to the camp without any serious injuries. No… 'lucky' would be for her to come back alive.

Suguri could not, however, leave the wounded animal to die in horrible sufferings, even if she wasn't responsible of what happened to the poor thing. In so much pain, the brown wolf must have limped to the edge of the clearing without noticing Suguri's presence.

The moment she saw the wolf, the drops cascading down the bullet wound, the forest seemed to shut itself into silence. The clearing sparkled under the after-noon sun. Not yet completely out of its torpor, the earth exhaled those particular breaths, deaf at the thaw, whose stubborn breaths floated around. She heard the warblers' quarrel together amongst the three-tops. The murmur of the nearby stream. A squirrel, jumping from branch to branch merrily, suddenly immobilized itself. The wolf stopped too and looked behind. It discovered Suguri. She held her breath, waiting, with a curious feeling that the whole forest was waiting with her.

"There it is! Can you see it? Do not lose it!"

"Shut up, you moron!"

Those two voices broke the charm. The wolf faded into the shadow of some fir trees' copse. The annoyed squirrel seemed to feel offended, for he jumped off the elm he had been sitting on and landed on a sagging willow, before speeding off with amazing grace. Suguri hadn't any choice but to hide in a tree.

Letting go of her bouquet of fresh sorrels, she rushed over to a low green branch belonging to a yew; its dense foliage would easily hide her, to the contrary of the numerous willows surrounding her, who were easy to climb up but impossible to hide in because their leaves had yet to come out yet. She climbed up the tree fast, without taking in account the scratches littering her body. When she finally found a good perch, she was bleeding a bit everywhere. After having ripped a few leaves off, she crumbled them between her fingers to force out their vinegary sap, then rubbed the trunk with it, as low as possible, to cover her own traces and sent, because if those poachers were accompanied by dogs, the animals would immediately smell her.

"This way!" She heard them shout loudly. Were they being obvious on purpose?

Brushing aside the leaves blocking her vision, Suguri sneaked a peek to the clearing below and discovered two men, one blond and the other russet.

"I'm sure my bullet got 'im, or at least its leg."

"If you want to finish him off, you'll have to make it quick. Some one could find us." the redhead said.

"But… it's muddy that way! And the path is narrow, with stones sticking out everywhere!" he looked down at his shining boots. "I just bought them…" he complained, making his companion remember that his own were new, too.

"Let's just go," retorted the latter, unhappy.

Suguri took out her Polaroid from her camouflage-colored backpack and took a few pictures of them, six or seven. She'd send a copy of each to the local forestry worker. He would certainly be happy to have them.

Now all she had to do was bring the wolf to Rika, the veterinary of her father's team, for medical attention. Easier said than done.

—TMM—TMM—TMM—TMM—

"Suguri hasn't done anything wrong!" the redhead raged, anger at its peak, stomping away from the camp.

She had known it was coming, but never realised it would happen so soon. Working alongside her father had made her feel mature to the point of forgetting she was a teenager and had to finish school. It seemed so far away, that period!

Her feet were sinking into the mud with every step she took, and she had to be careful not to trip. She reached up for one of the braches of a non-identified tree and used it as a leverage to lift herself up.

"Suguri hasn't done anything wrong…" She was still in denial about it all. Going back to Tokyo felt wrong to her. Living with her dad, Hauru, felt like an adventure, always moving from place to place, taking care of animals and learning about their lifestyle… It was not going to happen again, because after-tomorrow she would return to Tokyo, to Sara and her mother… to what she had left behind without looking back, never expecting to face them once again.

Suguri Kotoboki could feel the moisture in the air, left from yesterday's rain. She felt wet, dirty —perhaps the mud covering her legs, which had sunk in the ground, had something to do with it— and disappointed. School was what she hated most, because she never made any friends and was always rejected when it came to making groups. She felt better in the company of older people or small kids that had yet to gain the ability to speak.

Life with her nature-loving father and his team had some bad point, though. She could not have fake nails on, wear the Hawaiian jewellery she loved so much on nor sing karaoke. Giving up on all that nearly made her want to go home at first, but with time she had gotten used to it. Now, perfectly happy with her life, her dad wanted her to pack her bags and leave!

In a way, it was like her father betrayed her…

She sat down on a big, fat, sturdy branch with a sigh. An ache had developed in her leg muscles and her teeth were clattering from the lingering winter temperature and the coldness coming from the tree. She could feel her relatively light backpack pressing against her back, filled with her notebook, her pen, her phone, Mamoru's night vision goggles she had stolen, her Polaroid, a cereal bar, some rope, a compass and a lighter. She always brought her backpack when she went for a walk, a trip or accompanied someone to take some samples.

Suguri took out the crumbled leaves she had used earlier to mask her sent. She opened her fisted hand and blew softly, watching as they took flight in the darkness of the night, with the moon as only guide.

'I wish for things to change. I want to prove myself capable of confronting the harsh way of life.'

She stood up, tucking a stray lock of red hair behind her ear, and jumped down the tree, landing in a crouching position. A breeze passed by with a hollow whisper.

'I plead for my wish to be granted. Please…'

Her legs straightened themselves as she stood, her pants emitting a rustle. The leaves were no longer in sight.

"I'll give anything." she finished out loud, for the whole forest, as silent as ever, to hear.

There was something undeniably amusing about the whole display. Statistics show that most people want, wish for 5 things: Sex, money, power, revenge and love. In that order. Hers was so simplistic, yet normal. Many wished to make a change. The fact that, in a certain way, her wish would come true was comic. Hilarious, even.

—TMM—TMM—TMM—TMM—

Hospitals were cold, sterile places that smelt of medication and antiseptic. For Suguri, they made her feel at home, unlike most. During a good part of her childhood, she had spent most of her time at her mother's side, reading the newspaper or a few selected poems, hoping that despite being in a coma, her mother—stepmother, in fact. But she thought of her as her mom.—would hear her, and perhaps even react.

Once, Kayano had emitted a facial twitch when Suguri had confessed how bad her day had been. A girl had insulted her because Suguri had accidently hit her at dodge ball and everyone had laughed at the red haired girl. She had cried on the way home. A lot.

"Hey, mom, it's Suguri. She's finally back from travelling with dad. She… sent pictures of poachers to a forestry worker and they were caught this morning." There was no visible reaction. "Suguri was the first to be informed because she took the pictures. At… at the time, they were following a wolf. An endangered specie. I… was there."

She sat down on the plastic chair beside her mom's bed, the same one since her first ever visit. The paint had faded, revealing grey metal and brownish orange leather. A beeping came from a nearby machine and an annoying fly was buzzing angrily, trying to escape but only managing to hit the glass so far.

"Does it count as a good deed, taking pictures? Suguri hopes so, because she put a sticker in her Heaven Diary."The book in question was a neon shade of pink with little white angels on it. So far, it possessed twelve stickers. Apparently, when ten diaries would be filled with a hundred stickers each—one sticker per good need—the person would go to Heaven.

Suguri mostly wanted to make up for the bad things she did.

Was it her, or did Kayano's breathing get heavier? It was only her imagination, she saw, moving closer. Her mother smelt like hospital and sweat.

"Why… why won't you wake up, mama? Suguri needs you. She'll be starting school again soon and will see her old classmates. She… I didn't have any friends then, and won't have any now. Of that, she—I'm sure. Sarah is hardly there, so the moral support is lacking."

Her vocabulary was quite impressive for a girl her age. But she had always acted mature, whatever the situation. It was in her blood, from Hauru.

She sniffed.

Suguri Kotoboki didn't cry, she snot-cried; a combination of snotting herself, sniffing in a vain attempt to keep it in, and fountains of tears, nearly drowning everything. As a child, she often had her nose blocked because of that.

She dug her hands in the pocket of her sweatshirt, searching for something. Out came a tissue, in a bad shape but unused, and she blew her nose, loudly. Her mother didn't react, to nobody's surprise. She dabbed her lips, wet from the fluid liquid coming out of her nose. Suguri wasn't crying, but the state of her damp green eyes held a warning note.

She stood briskly and announced, "Suguri has to go now. She has school in three days,, so she'll take advantage of her free time left, to visit mummy. Tomorrow she'll be there in the afternoon with the newspaper! Doesn't that sound good?" She bowed low, retrieving her handbag as she did so, and left her mother and the old and worn-out chair behind.

She walked down the corridor, through a set of sand-colored double doors and down the stairs. A passing nurse said 'hello' as she exited the building and she gave a weak response back. Outside, a bus—hers—had just stopped across the hospital parking. It was crowded, but there wasn't any other alternative to go home. Suguri found herself squished against a young mother trying to calm her baby and a man yelling in his telephone.

She threw her dirty tissue in one of the small bins of the bus and pressed herself against the cold window, as far away as possible from the other occupants of the bus.

It had been long since she had seen the familiar scenery; big, high buildings, constant traffic, with lights so blinding they stayed imprinted in her retina and shops, along with restaurants and cafes everywhere. It was nighttime in Tokyo.

Suguri licked her lips, feeling self-conscious. The place seemed to be flaunting every good thing it had. She saw how nicely the girls of the area were dressed, perfect in every way. Next to them, her jumper and dark jeans made her look like a boy. Once home, she'd change.

She set foot on the pavement thirty minutes later, leaving the crowded bus behind. Suguri was a little thirsty, so she entered a little homey café near the bus stop. The smell of coffee and brownies assaulted her, and she took a big breath of it all.

She ordered a take-away hot chocolate with cream on top to the lady behind the counter, who grabbed a plastic cup and went over to make it. The redhead—Suguri—was surprised to see how fast the woman made it. But, after all, she was probably used to it.

In no time at all, she gave the steaming cup to her, with a plastic lid on it. It had a small hole in the middle for a straw.

"Thank you."

The woman nodded and turned to the next client.

"I can not believe it! This place is nothing compared to Mew Mew café!"

A young girl had said that. Her friend, a blond girl with two pigtails, asked, "The one near Inohara park? I only passed it once. I thought it looked a little too… err… girly for today."

"Yeah well…"

Suguri didn't stay to listen any more to the two girls conversation. She went home, cradling her hot drink, pondering on what she had just heard. She lived near Inohara park, and she would go take a look at this ' Mew Mew café ' .


End file.
